RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Jennifer Kupcho’s brilliant play in the first three rounds of the Chevron Championship spilled over into the front nine of the final round Sunday at the Dinah Shore Course at Mission Hills Country Club.
As it turned out, Kupcho needed every perfect drive and long birdie putt from her front nine to hold on and win the LPGA’s first major championship of the year.
Kupcho watched a seven-shot lead on the front nine evaporate to just two shots before she made some key putts at critical moments late in the back nine. The putts allowed Kupcho to win the major championship and claim the honor of being the last winner to celebrate her Chevron Championship win with a leap into Poppie’s Pond.
“Is that me?,” Kupcho said when asked to think about being a major championship winner. “I think it is surreal to be a major winner. It is really special and to be the last person here at Mission Hills to jump into Poppie’s Pond is really special.”
The victory is the first for Kupcho in her four-year career on the LPGA and allows the former NCAA individual champion from Wake Forest to join Hall of Famers, LPGA greats and a few surprise winners on the roster of winners in the 51-year history of the tournament in the Coachella Valley. The tournament will move to Houston in 2023, leaving behind memories like the ones Kupcho made Sunday.
Jennifer Kupcho plays her shot from the first tee during the final round of the 2022 Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)
Starting the day with a six-shot lead over defending champion Patty Tavatanakit, Kupcho raced away from the field early Sunday. Birdies on the fourth and fifth holes, both on putts of about 25 feet, pushed her lead to seven shots midway through the front nine.
But the driver and the putter that had propelled Kupcho to the verge of the tournament 72-hole scoring record of 19-under par suddenly went cold. She bogeyed the eighth, 10th, 13th and 14th holes while Jessica Korda made a change. Kupcho left the 14th green with just a two-shot lead, but Korda bogeyed the 15th hole seconds later to push Kupcho’s lead back to three shots. When Kupcho birdied the 15th, the drama of who would be the final winner finally left the event.
Kupcho finished the tournament at 14-under 273, including a 2-over 74 that saw seven bogeys in the round Sunday, including the final two holes. Korda finished at 12-under for the week with a 3-under 69 in the final round. Pia Babnik, an 18-year-old from Slovenia who was in the field on a sponsor’s exemption, finished alone in third at 11-under after a strong 66 Sunday.
Four players, including 2014 Chevron Championship winner Lexi Thompson and defending champion Patty Tavatanakit, finished tied for fourth at 10-under. Hinako Shiubuno, the first-round leader, and France’s Celine Boutier rounded out that foursome.
Kupcho takes home a tournament record $750,000 from the elevated purse of $5 million, part of the allure of the Chevron sponsorship that will take the tournament to Texas starting next year.
During the trophy presentation, Al Williams, vice president of corporate affairs at Chevron, was met with a smattering of boos by the packed grandstands lining the 18th green.
As an homage to the event’s history, four former champions also jumped into Poppie’s Pond about two minutes after Kupcho made the last official leap in with her husband Jay Monahan and caddie David Eller.
Patty Sheehan, Sandra Palmer, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc and three-time champion Amy Alcott, the originator of the leap, all got wet.
Sheehan, the 1996 winner, and Meunier-Lebouc, the 2003 winner, jumped in and did the backstroke. Alcott grabbed a flower from the bed of the pond and held it up as she did a full dive into the water. Palmer, who won in 1975, actually stumbled on her way to the pond, then sheepishly walked over to the edge and put her feet in, raising her arms to the crowd to get the applause she deserved.
Kupcho’s woes started when she hit a tee shot over the green on the par-3 eighth hole, chipped down to 10 feet and missed the putt. She couldn’t coax in a 10-foot birdie putt on the ninth, then hit a drive into a fairway bunker on the way to another bogey.
Korda’s day started with a hole out from the fairway for an eagle on the third hole. But she parred out on the front nine and then added two birdies and one bogey on the back nine.
“I was further back starting than I wanted and (had) bunch of lipouts, and it is what it is,” Korda said. “Sometimes you got to be lucky to win majors, and I still haven’t found that yet. Second place is not bad after being 3-over through 7, so pretty proud of myself.”
By the time Kupcho bogeyed the last two holes, her win was basically secured.
“Honestly I came out just trying to shoot a couple under. I mean, I had a six-stroke lead and I shot 8 under yesterday, so I figured if someone can do that, they deserve to be in a playoff.”
Kupcho said she was only interested in surviving the par-5 18th hole with its island green.
“Just hit it somewhere up in the fairway and not in the water and then lay it up,” she said. “I never even thought about going for it.”
While the finish might not have been stellar, what Kupcho did for 72 holes was. She’s the first American to win the title since Brittany Lincicome in 2015, and she is just the second player to win this tournament as their first LPGA win, following playing partner Tavatanakit from last year. And in the end, she heard the roars from a crowd that seemed appreciative toward each player walking to the 18th green as if it was the last time they would be seen in the desert.
“It’s special, honestly,” Kupcho said. “One of the biggest things I have fought over the last year is everyone is out here cheering for Nelly (Korda) or Lexi (Thompson) or someone else that I am playing with. I don’t every hear ‘Go, Jennifer.’ That was really special today to have that. My caddie and his friends and all of my friends being out supporting me was special.”